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T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s G\u00f6kova Bay was once an ecosystem on the brink. Overfishing, intense tourism, invasive species and rising sea temperatures had depleted its once-thriving waters and destroyed a way of life for local fishers.<\/p>\n
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It became the country\u2019s first Marine Protected Area (MPA) in 2010 and is now testament to the power of ocean conservation.<\/p>\n
Its crystal waters are now home to nearly 73 per cent of T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s fish species. Endangered Mediterranean monk seals have returned to breed there. The income of local fishers<\/a> has soared by 300 per cent, NGO Revive Our Ocean reports.<\/p>\n Not all of Europe\u2019s 6,000 MPAs<\/a> have been so exemplary. Bottom trawlers continue to operate in more than half of them, due to gaps between conservation and fisheries policies, as well as lobbying and a lack of enforcement of protections on paper.<\/p>\n These huge industrial fishing vessels drag heavy nets fitted with metal chains \u2013 some as large as 12 Boeing 747s \u2013 along the seabed, indiscriminately scooping up marine life as they go.<\/p>\n Taxpayer-funded bottom trawling costs European society billions<\/p>\n Propped up by \u20ac1.17 billion in taxpayer subsidies, European-flagged \u2018bottom trawlers\u2019 release an average of 112.4 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year by guzzling fuel and disturbing carbon-trapping sediment<\/a> on the seafloor.<\/p>\n All of this costs European society up to \u20ac16 billion per year \u2013 mostly in climate impacts, from sea level rise to human health and reduced labour productivity \u2013 according to a new study by National Geographic Pristine Seas. That means the net costs of bottom trawling<\/a> to society are 90 times greater than the \u20ac180 million in annual profits generated by the industry itself.<\/p>\n It also creates mountains of food waste: up to 75 per cent of marine life caught in these nets is discarded, valued at \u20ac220 million per year.<\/p>\n Yet for all this cost, bottom trawlers provide just 2 per cent of the animal protein consumed across Europe \u2013 while directly employing fewer than 20,000 people. Small-scale fisheries, by contrast, generate approximately three times more jobs.<\/p>\n The economic fragility of the industry was laid bare recently when at least half the Dutch bottom trawling fleet stayed in port due to soaring diesel costs amid the Iran war<\/a> \u2013 a stark reminder of how fossil fuel-dependent the practice is.<\/p>\n \u201cOur study makes it clear that bottom trawling in European waters is not just an environmental disaster, it\u2019s an economic failure,\u201d says Professor Enric Sala, National Geographic Explorer in Residence and one of the authors of the study published today (28 April) in the Ocean & Coastal Management journal.<\/p>\n How did G\u00f6kova Bay stamp out bottom trawling?<\/p>\n When G\u00f6kova became an Marine Protected Area in 2010, no-fishing zones were established and nearly half of the bay was closed to bottom trawling. <\/p>\n Enforcement of these rules relies heavily on community involvement. Marine rangers, many who are local fishers themselves, patrol its 100-kilometre stretch daily. <\/p>\n Among them is Ay\u015fenur \u00d6lmez, 28, who grew up fishing with her parents in G\u00f6kova Bay and became T\u00fcrkiye’s first female marine ranger. <\/p>\n \u201cI call the sea home. I call G\u00f6kova home. And to protect my home, I had to do something,\u201d she told Revive Our Ocean last year. \u201cI became a marine ranger so that I could fish again in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n The bay is no longer plagued with invasive species, and sandbar sharks and Mediterranean monk seals \u2013 both endangered \u2013 have returned to breed there. In 2017, G\u00f6kova was recognised as one of the world’s 16 best Marine Protected Areas at the UN Ocean Conference in New York.<\/p>\n T\u00fcrkiye has since expanded its MPAs and no-fishing zones, building on the success of G\u00f6kova Bay.<\/p>\n What can Europe learn from G\u00f6kova Bay?<\/p>\n Across Europe, however, most MPAs lack strong protections against bottom trawling. In Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain, over a quarter of all time spent trawling takes place inside these \u2018protected\u2019 zones.<\/p>\n